So, you can’t put your faith in letting people take more time to make their decisions. Gone are the days of “take all the time you need!” and “take a few days to sleep on it!”

You want to nudge your prospects through the decision-making process as quickly as you can, but as genuinely as you can.

These 10 psychological hacks are things you probably already do on occasion, but now you can recognize them, and do them consciously, putting you (not your subconscious) in charge of your sales potential.

1. Give Less Options

Lots of options feels synonymous with freedom. And perhaps it is.

But for you, lots of options is synonymous with no sales. How can that be?

Let’s say you’re ready to purchase a laptop. You go to the store, and when you make your way to the right section, you realize that there are a ton of options.

You browse through some of them, you start trying to weigh price vs. value, and you ultimately leave empty-handed, because you need more time to make the best decision.

Too many options has stifled you into putting it off.

Now, you may need a laptop so badly that you do spend a lot of time weighing the options, browsing reviews, looking at customer ratings, and checking out the specs on different models.

However, what if it was something that you thought you could put off? For many people, insurance falls into that category.

So what ends up happening when you tell your prospect that there are 138,211 different possible ways to put together a short-term care plan?

They say something like, “Well, now just isn’t a good time” or “I’d like to take some time to think about it.”

And we both know what that means. It’s the polite way of saying, “Mmmm, thanks but no thanks.”

Don’t bombard your prospects with decisions. Don’t show them the rate card.

Which one of these looks better to you?

Dr. Liraz Margalit, Web Psychologist for Clicktale, conducted a psychological analysis for the insurance company Allianz. She explains, “[Allianz] was seeking to enhance its overall profitability.”

The goal was to increase the amount of customers who were likely to buy more, and decrease the amount of customers who were likely to generate large payouts. In short: increase the profits, decrease the losses.

The less-than-ideal customers were looking for good deals, free options, and the like, so Allianz replaced the free coverages section with informational banners instead. The results?

“Retention from the Policy Options page to the next step of the policy flow increased 15% and overall conversions rose by 3%.”

We know you aren’t running a huge online experience for your customers, but the takeaway from this analysis is still useful for you. Dr. Margalit summarizes that you need to tailor the customer experience according to the customer risk profile.

Get to know your customer, and tailor your presentation to that. A streamlined experience will lead you to more relevant sales.

Instead of saying, “You’re getting amazing protection!” you’re going to say, “You could lose $8,000 a month if you don’t have this protection.”

Instead of saying, “You’ll finally get peace of mind!” you’re going to say, “as time goes on, your sense of stability and financial protection will disappear.”

Instead of saying, “This product will cover up to 1 year at a nursing home,” you’re going to say “This product will save you from losing your home, because 1 year at the nursing home can cost up to $100,000.”

Do not forget that our brains are programmed to find risk and do everything necessary to keep us from taking that risk.

There’s nothing wrong with telling your customer what they’ll gain, but know that the real hard-hitting selling points are going to be creating the fear of what they will lose if they don’t have insurance.

4. Take the Sale Away

This is a favorite sales technique of Jeff Sams.

The idea is that you create a sense of unavailability to the product.

For example, “Mrs. Johnson, you’re in great health right now, but we don’t know where you’ll be in six months. You can probably get accepted for this policy right now, but I can’t guarantee that you will later on.”

5. Be Unreasonable, Then Back to Reality

Picture this: A teacher tells the class they must write a 10-page paper due Friday. The class sighs and grumbles and complaints fill the room. She laughs and says, “I was only joking. It only has to be 3 pages.” The class is relieved.

If the teacher had begun by saying, “There’s a 3-page paper due on Friday,” I guarantee you the class would be mumbling and grumbling.

When we bring this technique into your closing process, it can look something like this:

“Let me just pull up a quick rate calculation for you… it looks like it’s going to be about $10,000 a year.”

The client looks at you with wide eyes, and you jump back in and say, “I’m kidding. It’s only $1200 a year.”

Your client is much more likely to think the rate is very reasonable in this circumstance.

Do be warned though. If you don’t already have an easy-going and somewhat humorous personality, this can come across in the wrong way. So be cautious with this one, and use it sparingly.

6. Sell on the Emotion Trigger First

Pulling on our heartstrings is more likely to get us to:

Donate

Attend an event

Do something we don’t want to do

Buy things

There are many more things on this list, but humans are built to feel. It’s worth arguing that every decision we make is influenced by our emotions. Sure, logic can aid in this process, but selling on the emotion trigger is much more likely to bring the sale home.

Now, there a lot of emotions you can channel including:

Fear

Altruism

Pride

Shame

We already went over selling on fear of loss, but what about these others?

With altruism, you’re focusing on how this product will benefit other people. So, for example, if you want to sell a final expense policy, you’re saying things like this:

Think about the relief your children will feel when they know that the funeral costs are covered.

You don’t want your family to be financially burdened in a time of grief, do you?

There’s no doubt that it would be a very difficult time for your family. Can you imagine how much more stressful it would to be to worry about where the money will come from to pay for your final expenses?

You want your client to realize that their purchase is really for the well-being of other people. And that’s a satisfying emotion. They will feel empowered for being so selfless.

With pride, you’re wanting to focus on how this product will add value to the person’s identity.

So, here are a few example of how this might look:

You could be the first person in your family to leave an inheritance for your children.

Think about it: you can have complete financial control over any possible misfortunes in your life.

I know you have respect for yourself. You wouldn’t want to go a day without having peace of mind over the unknown.

With shame, you’re focusing on the negative consequences of not purchasing insurance. You’re painting a picture of a complete financial crisis, you’re talking about how the person’s family will be let down, you’re capitalizing on the huge mistake the person would make if they did not buy.

Imagine if you slipped and fell on a piece of ice. Do you have $8,000 a month to pay for recovery care?

I just want to make sure you know that I offered this to you, and if the worst does happen, and your kids come to me and say, “did you ever offer this protection to my mother,” I’m going to say, “yes, yes I did.”

I wouldn’t go a day without this protection. I firmly believe it would be a huge mistake to go any longer without this coverage.

Emotions are powerful. Remember that you are not a sneaky salesman. You have important information for your prospects and clients, and forcing them to realize what they’re missing out on is ultimately your responsibility.

Check out what John Hockaday and Jeff Sams have to say on the subject:

7. Build Value That Exceeds the Price

A lot of us have gotten used to selling on price rather than value. That’s definitely true if you’re selling Med Supps, but even then, you still might come across a customer that just doesn’t think the price is worth it.

That’s when you need to build the value and make that value exceed the cost of the price.

And how do you do that?

First, determine what is valuable to your prospect.

In most cases, that’s going to include things like:

Happiness

Their family

Their assets

Peace of mind

Honesty and integrity

How can work those things into your presentation? You probably are already putting this all together.

You can do that by integrating many of the previous hacks.

Build the fear of losing their assets

Build the pride in taking care of family

Build your reputation by showing testimonials and building rapport

The value you’re building isn’t just in the product features.

It has to be bigger than that.

Think big — think about the things listed above that people value most, and use them to make sure that the value of insurance exceeds the cost to the client.

When you’ve done that, the sale will naturally follow.

8. Fight Against Suspicion

We are naturally suspicious people. Our brain searches for all possible risks in any situation, so when you’re pitching that hot new short-term care product, your client’s brain is zipping back and forth evaluating risk.

How do you fight against that natural suspiciousness? (Say that 5 times fast…)

Create that imitation factor by making it apparent that it’s very common, and that most people won’t leave home without your product.

10. Mirror Your Client’s Behaviors

Mirroring someone else’s behaivors has been seen to increase sales.

If you really think about, we do this already. Have you ever found yourself saying a phrase that your friends always say?

Have you ever found yourself being much louder around your outgoing friends?

Have you ever found yourself kissing your Belgian friend on the cheek instead of shaking hands?

We do this so that we can have some common ground with other people. And you can take this principle and use with new prospects.

As with everything else, you don’t want to go too far at the risk of being obvious and somewhat creepy, but there are a few things you can do.

If the client leans forward, follow suit with a 5-10 second lag. If the client crosses his or her legs, do the same with a slight lag. If the client says a certain phrase often, use it once or twice when you speak.

If you notice that the person starts shifting more and more often, stop mirroring them immediately. This is a sign that they’ve caught on to what you’re doing and feel as if they’re being manipulated.

This is an older video, but there are some good examples:

Sometimes, we just need a little extra bit of sales knowledge to boost our chances of closing that tough sell. We use many of these psychological hacks in our personal relationships, so why not transfer those to business?